Angelina Jolie: Support Libyan Refugees!

Angelina Jolie urges support of Libyan refugees in a new statement released on Wednesday (March 2).

The 35-year-old actress and UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador spoke from Kabul, Afghanistan and shared that she’s met with refugees struggling to survive.

“As we witness these newest crises unfold in west and north Africa, it is critical that all parties respect the fundamental right of people in danger to flee to safety – whether civilians caught in conflict in their own country or refugees and asylum seekers caught in new conflicts,” Angelina said in a statement (via THR). “All I’m asking is that civilians be protected, and not targeted or harmed.”

“With these new waves of uprising and conflict, there is and will continue to be massive new displacement. The world needs to address this moment. We have to give people safe passage, evacuation if needed, and ensure they have asylum. We don’t want to look back and find their deaths are on our hands,” Angelina added.

“As the world’s attention shifts to the newest refugee crises, we need to remember that if we don’t support people in the long term to really get back on their feet – to feed, shelter and educate their families, to earn a living with dignity, and to participate in meaningful ways in their societies – we will see a continued cycle of instability and new crises,” she concluded.

at least one ‘celeb’ is paying attention to the matter!
thanks angie :) <3

Moony_Aragorn

She’s such a sweetheart. She’s an inspiration for us all. Some people just can’t accept the fact that she’s a beautiful person inside and out!

kaiser

home-wrecking baby collector

jimmyjo

Does the US even accept/take in refugees anymore or is there a cap?? I know us Canadians seem to get all of them here and we do our share, we are like that, but does US?.

Lara

What an amazingly inspirational lady, bravo Angie. She truly knows what’s really important in life, love her and god bless her and Brad and their children.

QQQQ

Angelina Jolie, UN refugee agency Goodwill Ambassador, issues appeal for civilians and refugees in Côte d’Ivoire and Libya
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KABUL, Afghanistan – UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie today voiced deep concern for the tens of thousands of civilians caught up in two separate and fast-unfolding emergencies: Côte d’Ivoire and Libya.
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“As we witness these newest crises unfold in west and north Africa, it is critical that all parties respect the fundamental right of people in danger to flee to safety – whether civilians caught in conflict in their own country or refugees and asylum seekers caught in new conflicts,” Jolie said. “All I’m asking is that civilians be protected, and not targeted or harmed.”
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In Côte d’Ivoire, fierce fighting in the Abobo district of Abidjan and clashes in the west over the past few days have blocked access for humanitarian organizations and brought the country perilously close to all-out civil war. Thousands of people have been displaced in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire’s commercial hub, and refugees have been streaming across the country’s western border into Liberia in unprecedented numbers. Eastern Liberia is already dealing with more than 70,000 Ivorians who have arrived there since the presidential election of late November.
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At the same time, UNHCR is worried for thousands of refugees, asylum-seekers, and irregular migrants still inside Libya and in circumstances of considerable danger. Few of these have been able to make it out of Libya and into either Tunisia or Egypt – where most people leaving the country have been heading. On Tuesday, UNHCR said it was particularly concerned for sub-Saharan Africans who have become vulnerable because of suspicions that they are foreign mercenaries. Amid chaotic scenes at the Tunisian border, UNHCR also issued a joint appeal with the International Organization for Migration for a massive humanitarian evacuation for people fleeing Libya into Tunisia.
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“With these new waves of uprising and conflict, there is and will continue to be massive new displacement. The world needs to address this moment. We have to give people safe passage, evacuation if needed, and ensure they have asylum. We don’t want to look back and find their deaths are on our hands,” Jolie said.
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The acclaimed actress was speaking from Kabul, Afghanistan, where she has been on a low-profile two-day visit to listen to the problems of returned refugees still struggling to survive and reintegrate almost 10 years after returning from exile.
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”As the world’s attention shifts to the newest refugee crises, we need to remember that if we don’t support people in the long term to really get back on their feet – to feed, shelter and educate their families, to earn a living with dignity, and to participate in meaningful ways in their societies – we will see a continued cycle of instability and new crises,” Jolie said.
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UNHCR is rallying support from donors and other humanitarian and development agencies to redouble their efforts to help returning refugees reintegrate in Afghanistan.
.http://www.unhcr.org/4d6e5e736.html

Text of the Hollywood Reporter from last Brad thread:From the Hollywood Reporter (pix at link):Angelina Jolie Urges Help for Libyan Refugees
11:38 AM 3/2/2011 by Lindsay Powers
We don’t want to look back and find their deaths are on our hands,” says the actress, who is currently in Kabul, Afghanistan.
With Angelina Jolie’s most recent film, The Tourist, finished in theaters, she is focusing on her other role: UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador.
The actress spoke from Kabul, Afghanistan Wednesday to urge support of Libyan refugees, affected by growing unrest and protests in the country against leader Muammar Gaddafi, and those in Africa’s Côte d’Ivoire, which is on the verge of a civil war, according to the UN.
“As we witness these newest crises unfold in west and north Africa, it is critical that all parties respect the fundamental right of people in danger to flee to safety – whether civilians caught in conflict in their own country or refugees and asylum seekers caught in new conflicts,” Jolie said in a statement. “All I’m asking is that civilians be protected, and not targeted or harmed.”
“With these new waves of uprising and conflict, there is and will continue to be massive new displacement. The world needs to address this moment. We have to give people safe passage, evacuation if needed, and ensure they have asylum. We don’t want to look back and find their deaths are on our hands,” Jolie said.
The actress has been in Afghanistan for the past two days to listen to the problems of returned refugees who are struggling to survive 10 years after returning from exile.
“As the world’s attention shifts to the newest refugee crises, we need to remember that if we don’t support people in the long term to really get back on their feet – to feed, shelter and educate their families, to earn a living with dignity, and to participate in meaningful ways in their societies – we will see a continued cycle of instability and new crises,” Jolie said. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/angelina-jolie-urges-help-libyan-163315

Passing Through

# 567 Mister IUC @ 03/02/2011 at 11:53 am
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Reality and IUC are anethema to each other. Crack and IUC, however, are old lovers and go together like shite and a towel bowel. In fact I can see the big t u r d himself circling the drain as I type…

MANniston

thank you angelina for your support ! you are the best and we love you !

nina

the haters are there again ? you are so pathetic

out on a limb

THIS JUST IN:
ANGIE SUPPORTS CUTE BABY SEALS

Passing Through

I see the trolls are Johnny on the spot with the new thread. Aside from the low pay being a troll is the easiest job in the world. Just hang out smoking crack until Jared puts up a new Brad or Angie thread – then cut and paste the same comments you’ve been posting for 5 1/2 years. It’s almost idiot proof. Almost.

LOL! Dang…that was a really comeback I had so I gotta correct my typo so it reads right!
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# 567 Mister IUC @ 03/02/2011 at 11:53 am
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Reality and IUC are anethema to each other. Crack and IUC, however, are old lovers and go together like shite and a toilet bowl. In fact I can see the big t u r d himself circling the drain as I type…

Langston

@MANniston: She isn’t supporting you asshole, this is about people who are facing genocide and trying to make it one more night. America doesn’t want to get involved and step into any country that doesn’t have oil for them to exploit.

briseis

My Lord, we have a crisis of international proportions and we still have stupid trolls on this thread? We have a spammer and sundry haters. What kind of people are these?

letti

@jimmyjo: Are you kidding? Canada does not let refugees enter like they’d like us to think. America is even worse.

chilli

She has no idea how the world works. I don’t care she saw pain of all the places in the world. She saw it, not lived there. She has no idea how it is to live in the country where soldiers come and rape and kill you in your own home. I’m truly sorry for the people who need to leave their homes and run from being killed and having nothing a have no idea where to go and what to do. But these people are also desperate and ergo dangerous. They need help but on the international way. Nothing pises me more than Hollywood actress telling me what to do. Most people here don’t give a s… about Libya. And even more don’t know who Kaddafi is and which continent Libya lies. She should shut up or I’l start to think she does it for publicity. She should let people from OSN and NATO do their work. And every person to think of it himself. She’s laughing to the people living in tragedy by giving “touching” statements. Shame on her.

fanjoliepitt

@nina they are jealous because Angelina said something important unlike the other maniston talking about mascara in his interviews !

Indira

When will Angie admit that she makes her money as part of the corporate war machine that drives continuous profitable war, injustice, and human suffering throughout the world?

andy

I suggest everyone take matters into their own hands and urge their local new stations to pay a little more attention. if everyone continues to sit at home with a bag of chips watching Real Housewives we’ll never get anywhere.

Maria

@WBPfan: what an amazing woman, Angelina is. She has become one of the greatest Humanitarian in our generation.

doublestandard

kaiser @ 03/02/2011 at 12:41 pm

This is the real home-wrecker, she wrecks her home and no one say anythin, well, no one pay attention to her anyway.

Angelina Jolie urges more focus on reintegration for former Afghan refugees
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News Stories, 2 March 2011
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UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie meets Khanum Gul and one of her eight children in Kabul.
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KABUL, Afghanistan, March 2 (UNHCR) – UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie on Wednesday called for greater focus to be put on the reintegration of former Afghan refugees as she wrapped up her second visit to the western Asian nation.
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During her two-day trip, the acclaimed actress met internally displaced people and refugee returnees still struggling to survive and reintegrate almost 10 years after returning to Afghanistan from years of exile.
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More than 5.5 million refugees have returned since 2002, mainly from Pakistan and Iran, and now make up 20 per cent of the population. UNHCR is concerned that too many of these former refugees continue to live without jobs, shelter and other basic needs.
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“It’s clear travelling through the country that what needs to be done is a very focused approach in places of return. We need to revisit the idea of what return is and the difference between just returning and reintegrating,” said Jolie, who last visited Afghanistan for UNHCR in 2008.
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“The focus needs to be put now on reintegration, and that means not just putting up shelter but making sure there is water, job opportunities, a school for the children and medical clinics,” she added.
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On Wednesday, Jolie returned to visit families living in a dilapidated warehouse in Kabul that once served as a storage facility for the national bus company. The Tamir Mili Bus depot is now one of 30 UNHCR-identified sites in the Afghan capital where returned refugees and internally displaced people can live while they eke out a living.
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The Goodwill Ambassador caught up again with Khanum Gul in the small damp room she shares with her husband and eight children. A UNHCR plastic tarpaulin covered a gaping hole in the front wall, providing some shelter from the wind and snow. On Jolie’s first visit in 2008, Khanum had just given birth to her son Samir.
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“It was very distressing to see that, because of the poor conditions, Samir seems to be suffering some form of developmental delay due to malnutrition or lack of medical care. He can’t walk and is barely surviving in what can only be described as a very cold and damp warehouse,” Jolie said.
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Khanum’s husband, Eshan, tries to earn a living as a daily labourer. He waits for hours every day but is rarely picked for work. The couple also support Khanum’s ailing 70-year-old mother, Bi Bi Zamo Jan, who also met Jolie on her first visit.
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“This old woman was so upset, because she feels like a burden. She watches her grandchildren go onto the streets every day to wash cars for a dollar a day so the family can eat. Often they earn nothing,” Jolie said. “Everyone I have met on this visit has been very clear. The Afghan people don’t want to become beggars. They want the opportunity to work for a living with dignity so they can provide for their families.”
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The day after arriving on Monday evening, the Goodwill Ambassador travelled to the village of Qala Gadu, which lies north of Kabul on the Shomali Plain, the scene of fierce fighting during successive waves of conflict in Afghanistan since the late 1970s. Among the 2,500 families in the area, almost everyone is a returned refugee or was internally displaced before 2002.
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Jolie met a group of young girls who will study at a new primary school that is being built in the village with funding from the actress. She also paid for a school in the remote returnee settlement of Tangi in eastern Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province. The girls in Qala Gadu currently study next to the local mosque. The lack of a proper classroom means most girls can’t study beyond 4th Grade.
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Ten-year-old Sahira presented Jolie with flowers on behalf of her classmates, saying: “If you build this school, I promise I will work really hard and study until the 12th Grade.” Sahira, who wants to be a doctor when she grows up, is the youngest of five daughters and the first of them to attend school.
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UNHCR is currently rallying support from donors and humanitarian and development agencies to redouble efforts to help returning refugees integrate in Afghanistan.
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By Ariane Rummery in Kabul, Afghanistan
.http://www.unhcr.org/4d6e7a8d6.html

Sophia

I’m with chilli. I’m a second-generation Egyptian and I lost family members in one week. When celebrities pretend to know what its like while they live in Chateaus Im offended.

Redmayne

lol @ thank you angelina. she isn’t here for you lot, she is speaking out on behalf of people living under opression. i’d hardly call hanging on just jared opression.

fanjoliepitt

@Langston Shut up you are really stupid ! angie the best !

Fran

I hope Angie rethinks her future participation in needlessly violent movies. She has more to offer than that.

Yo Sophia, she’s the UN ambassador and you’re not!! Ergo, she speaks with their permission and on their behalf. Get over yourself!! and BTW yes, she does have a very nice chateau, excellent views…

Hey PT What’s up girl?? Ya know, I was just wondering where in the wide world is good ole Georgie Porgie?? Oh right, he’s still in the Sudan, catching malaria, and bringing democracy to the populace… hehehe….

QQQQ

How come when Clooney was being lauded by Newsweek as the new statesman regarding Sudan, (except a few J-P fans) no one was saying how he was pretending to know about the world while living in his villa in Lake Coma or mansion in LA. You morons just need to get a life and LEAVE AJ alone.

Goya

FABULOUS young woman!!! There aren’t enough kudos to send her way.

Texas

“Earn a living with dignity”…….while sleeping with another womans husband! Seriously Angie? You need to stick with your day job, which is bang bang shoot ‘em movies, and leave the politics to those in charge!

-touching-

Angelina is very concerned and feels for the worlds’ refugees and their unimaginable suffering…. plus she really likes Brad’s new $50,000 bike rack and her latest newly renovated 40 million dollar home.

Great Role Model

Angelina Jolie, thank you for your tireless help for bringing focus to the plight of refugees of these war torn countries. You are the BEST!!!

Brenda

@chilli: Actually she DOES know about these issues. She’s been working on them for over a decade. You seem to be ignorant of the role that UUNHCR plays (R stands for refugees) as separate from NATO for example. And what do you think Goddwill Ambassadors do if not generate publicity for the issues the organizations they represent stand for? You sound bitter AND ignorant.

JUBILEE

I REALLY APPRECIATE THAT SOMEONE LIKE ANGELINA JOLIE IS ADVOCATING FOR THE PROTECTION OF REFUGEES, ASYLUM SEEKERS, AND THE DISPLACED AND STATELESS PEOPLE .
GREAT JOB ANGELINA!!!!!!!!!

Langston

@fanjoliepitt: O@Brenda:Obviously you are too obsessed with her to read my comment. I like Angelina for speaking out regardless of Hollywood being racist towards the middle east. Angelina is not like them. However the posters saying thank you to her as if she is doing this for us is ridiculous. People fail to realize this is a much larger, scarier problem. People are dying. It is not a joke/

Shame on you. You pompous jerk. How dare you sit behind your computer talking about how the world works while ANGIE IS OUT IN THE WORLD AS A WITNESS AND ADVOCATE FOR THOSE WITHOUT A VOICE! She may not suffer the same danger and deprivations as many of these people but in ‘degrees of separation’ she is a helll of a lot closer to the ACTION than you are. You want to do nothing? Fine, just keep your ignorant and ill informed opinions to yourself.

releka

Love, love, love this woman!!!!!!

Betcha

Since she was named as a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador in early 2001, Angelina Jolie has visited more than 20 countries around the world to highlight the plight of millions of uprooted people and to advocate for their protection. She has managed to do all this while pursuing a busy acting career and bringing up her children.http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49db77906.html
I’m a very proud fan of Angelina Jolie, go girl I’m rooting for your success in all your endeavors.

openyoureyes

I think you guys fail to see the point of all this. George AND Angelina are using their celebrity to make things more known to younger generations. This is not a competition. You guys look like fools

leslie

sophia im sorry you lost family in egypt. my prayers are with you and your people.

Fr. The UNHCR

Angelina Jolie Fact Sheet

Since she was named as a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador in early 2001, Angelina Jolie has visited more than 20 countries around the world to highlight the plight of millions of uprooted people and to advocate for their protection. She has managed to do all this while pursuing a busy acting career and bringing up her children.

Her interest in humanitarian affairs was piqued in 2000 when she went to Cambodia to film the adventure film, Tomb Raider. Her interest and determination to help the displaced, publicize their plight and lobby for international assistance has never flagged.

After Jolie’s recent trip to Afghanistan at the end of 2008, the Oscar-winning American actress appealed for more international commitment to help returnee reintegration and urged greater humanitarian support for the population.

“The courage, resilience and quiet dignity of returnee families rebuilding their lives against the kind of adversity few of us can imagine show the human spirit at its best,” she said after spending part of her time in eastern Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province, where almost 850,000, or 20 percent, of all Afghan returnees have repatriated since 2002.

When travelling to Sudan and Chad in early 2007, Jolie was so struck by what she had seen that she and her partner, actor Brad Pitt, donated US$1 million to be shared by UNHCR and two other agencies for their work in helping millions of people affected by the crisis in Sudan’s Darfur region.

“It’s always hard to see decent people, families, living in such difficult conditions,” she said at the time, while adding that she was also struck by the sense of hope she encountered. Jolie called on the international community to do more to help the displaced and needy, just as she did when visiting Syria and Iraq in August 2008 to draw attention to the humanitarian crisis and raise support for UNHCR and its partners.

In addition to her extensive field missions for UNHCR, Angelina has been calling attention to the plight of the displaced at the political level in various gatherings, including the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos. She regularly visits Washington DC, raising humanitarian issues during meetings with the United States’ top politicians. In 2007, she became a member of the influential Council on Foreign Relations.

In 2005, also in the US capital, she launched the National Centre for Refugee and Immigrant Children, an organization that provides free legal aid to asylum-seeking children with no legal representation. In 2006, Jolie announced the founding of the Jolie-Pitt Foundation, which has made significant donations worldwide. She also co-chairs the Education Partnership for Children of Conflict, founded in 2006, which helps fund education programmes for children affected by conflict.

Jolie’s devotion to this and other humanitarian causes has not gone unnoticed. In 2003, she was the first recipient of the Citizen of the World Award by the United Nations Correspondents Association, and in 2005 she was awarded the Global Humanitarian Award by the United Nations Association of the USA and the Business Council for the United Nations for her work with refugees.

In the same year she was awarded Cambodian citizenship as a result of her extensive work in the Asian country ravaged by civil war and brutal rule from the early 1970s to the late 1990s. And in 2007, the International Rescue Committee awarded its Freedom Award to Jolie and UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres for their contributions to the cause of refugees and human freedom.http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49db77906.html

used

Word has it that the singleing out of Libya from all other countries that are in the midst of upheaval has something to do with the softening of American opinion for the next military invasion for oil and occupation….and yes even more future refugees

JUBILEE

Angelina Jolie is a very decent human being unlike the trolls and haters hating a person who hasn’t done anything bad to them. She walks the walk and a very inspiring advocate of people in dire need.

chilli

@Brenda: But this is not helping children to go to school. This is much more serious conflict. Plus I can’t imagine that someone turns from ignorant to the supporter just because santa Angelina said so. All of us should shut up and let the governments take their actions. I know what Godwill ambasador does. I just doubt it works. People don’t care until it’s in front of their houses. And Brenda, people from Libya don’t care what Angelina says. They need much more. I’ve cared about Libya long way before. Just because I care. But at the same time I realise I have no power to help. And I don’t think you do. I wanna hear heads of EU and NATO to say we’ll try to do our best. Not superficial woman who means nothing in this conflict.

SJC

Why is it that an issue such as Libya can still bring up the haters from both Jen’s and Angie’s side? Granted, I’m not a huge fan of Miss Jolie but I do appreciate what she does for situations such as this. We should concentrate on the thread topic and not make it a reason to have a go at each other.

One thing I would love to know from her is where she expects the refugees to go? I’m not sure there are many countries who will be willing to take in such a large number of people. I just hope it ends quickly and people can start getting back on their feet.